Metadata: Assistance and charity, relations with institutions for assistance
Collection
- Country:
- Italy
- Holding institution:
- Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation
- Holding institution (official language):
- Fondazione Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea
- Postal address:
- via Eupili 8, 20145 Milano
- Phone number:
- +39 02316338
- Web address:
- http://www.cdec.it/
- Email:
- cdec@cdec.it
- Reference number:
- I° versamento: boxes 8, 33, 34; II° versamento: boxes 17, 18
- Title:
- Assistance and charity, relations with institutions for assistance
- Title (official language):
- Assistenza e beneficienza, rapporti con enti per l'assistenza
- Creator/accumulator:
- Milan Jewish Community
- Date(s):
- 1944-1972
- Date note:
- Jewish-related material dates from 1944-1967; 1970-1972
- Extent:
- 15 files
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- In order to carry out its mission of assistance, charity and rescue of refugee survivors of Nazi-Fascist persecutions, the Jewish Community of Milan maintained relations with national institutions and institutions such as the Organizzazione Sanitaria Ebraica (OSE, Jewish Health Organisation), which was in charge of outpatient services and summer camps, whose activities were reported to the Community; the Ente nazionale distribuzione soccorsi in Italia (ENDSI, National Aid Distribution Agency in Italy), which was responsible for distributing clothes and food products (its papers are often accompanied by the names of the beneficiaries), DELASEM and the Associazione ebrei ex internati in Italia (ASEBINIT, Association of former Jewish Internees in Italy) for the distribution of benefits to the needy, with lists of patients, contributions and receipt collections. The sub-series also includes documents regarding the American Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC), for the granting of economic subsidies to war refugees, and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) concerning the authorisations granted to those living in the Selvino collection centre to receive financial support.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Community of Milan, with its origins as a section of Mantua’s Community, developed around the middle of the 19th century, following the arrival of numerous Mantuan Jews who fled the violent antisemitic demonstrations of 1842. In Milan, without a real official and organised community, the relations with the mother community were governed by the Austrian civil code, according to which smaller communities must refer to the larger ones. Only in 1855 was the Jewish Consortium established, the first Jewish organisation in Milan, which in 1866 broke away from Mantua. The consortium did not assume the legal characteristics dictated by the Rattazzi law but reaffirmed its nature as a voluntary association with the only commitment for the members being the contributions for its maintenance. Thanks to the sudden economic, industrial and commercial development of Milan, the community grew rapidly: in 1890 it had 2,000 members, in the 1930s 8,000 Jews arrived from Piedmont, Marche, Tuscany and Veneto but also from Germany and from Central and Eastern Europe. In October 1930 the Council of Ministers approved the Royal Decree 1731, the new law on the Jewish communities and on the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities. A few days after the approval of the decree, Federico Jarach was elected the first president of the Jewish Community of Milan. In 1938 on the eve of antisemitic laws, the Community of Milan had just 5,000 members out of a total Jewish population of about 8,000 people. At the end of the Second World War, the Community of Milan became a crossing point for many refugees and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, collaborating with relief organisations such as the Joint, ADEI-WIZO, the ORT, and UNRRA using the building of via Unione 5 as the main reception, research and sorting centre for Jews returning from concentration camps. In the 1950s the community welcomed groups of Jews from Egypt, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran who settled in Milan because they were fleeing the Arab-Israeli wars, giving rise to an integration process that changed the original face of the Milanese community. Today it includes the districts of Como, Pavia, Sondrio and Varese.
- Access points: locations:
- Milan
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Paola Cipolla
